Development Analytics

🌍 Happy International Youth Day 2024! 🌍

🎉 The International Youth Day, observed on August 12, is an awareness day established by the United Nations to spotlight important cultural and legal issues affecting young people. The day aims to highlight and address various challenges and opportunities related to youth, fostering greater understanding and action on their behalf.

🌟 This year’s theme, “From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development” underscores the powerful role digital technologies play in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Digitalization is not only transforming our world but also providing unprecedented opportunities to accelerate sustainable development. According to the UN, technologies like mobile devices, digital platforms, and artificial intelligence are essential in achieving at least 70% of the 169 SDG targets and could reduce the cost of reaching these goals by up to USD 55 trillion.

📱In 2022, three-quarters of youth aged 15 to 24 were active internet users, demonstrating their leadership in digital adoption and innovation. Despite this, challenges remain, especially for young people in low-income countries and among young women, who often face barriers to digital access and skills. However, youth, often seen as “digital natives,” are crucial in driving technological change and creating solutions that address global issues as we approach the 2030 SDG deadline.

💡At Development Analytics, we celebrate youth’s digital contributions and their potential to inspire further innovation and collaboration. Our 2020 project, “Enhancing Advocacy Capacities of Youth CSOs in Turkey,” focused on empowering youth through research, advocacy, and training, aiming to address issues such as NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) and enhance the impact of youth-focused civil society organizations.

🔗 To learn more about our study, please view our report by following:https://b50852f2-fdef-42e1-adf9-b42650e2a9fc.filesusr.com/ugd/b70f3f_6f620347fb334d4e84959b06161abd2a.pdf

🌐Join us in recognizing the transformative power of youth and digital innovation this International Youth Day! Let’s celebrate how young minds are leveraging technology to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges and drive sustainable progress.



Photo credit: The United Nations

🌍 Tackling Child Poverty: A Holistic Approach on Measurement and Programme Design

Amidst global commitments to eradicate extreme child poverty under the Sustainable Development Goals, economic downturns, rising commodity prices, and the climate crisis have intensified financial strains on households, disproportionately affecting children.

At Development Analytics, we recognize the urgency of addressing this complex challenge. Through an integrated and comprehensive methodological approach, we aim to enhance child well-being by analyzing various dimensions of vulnerability and informing policy interventions.

🔍 Expertise in Measuring Child Poverty

Our team specializes in assessing and addressing the diverse challenges of child poverty across different national contexts. We employ a range of methodologies, including both monetary and multidimensional approaches, to develop tailored child benefit programs by collaborating closely with multilateral agencies.

Examining child poverty from various perspectives allows us to identify which children are more susceptible to living in vulnerability under different criteria, considering their unique needs and characteristics. This comprehensive understanding also empowers us to design child benefit programs that take a holistic approach, effectively defining and targeting the most vulnerable children.

📚 Previous Studies and Impact

We have conducted studies and interventions in countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Madagascar, Moldova, Nigeria, St. Lucia, Tajikistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Türkiye, yielding valuable insights and driving impactful change. Read more about this work here:
https://www.developmentanalytics.org/tackling-child-poverty

If you're interested in learning more about conducting a study in your country, click here to register your interest:

https://form.jotform.com/240933982922969

🔍 Expanding Our Consultant Roster with ECE Experts

🌟 We would like to announce that we are expanding our consultant roster and are seeking experts in Early Childhood Education (ECE) to join our dynamic team!

🌍 At Development Analytics, we collaborate with academics and consultants from diverse fields, including economics, sociology, political science, anthropology, urban planning, and computer science. Our projects are deeply rooted in development studies and social policy, leveraging both quantitative and qualitative research methods to drive impactful results.

💻 We recognize the crucial role of ECE in shaping the future and are particularly interested in professionals with expertise in this field. By joining our roster, you will have the opportunity to contribute to projects and be contacted directly when opportunities that match your skill set arise.

✨ If you are interested in collaborating with DA, we invite you to provide us with your most recent academic and professional information using the link below. While we are looking for experts globally, experts located in the ECA region (e.g. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina) are particularly encouraged to join.

🔗Join our Consultant Roster: https://www.developmentanalytics.org/join-the-team

📢Join us for our webinar “Estimating the total economic value of unpaid care work”

💡Unpaid care work, despite its crucial implications for well-being of the society, gender equality, and women's empowerment, is often overlooked as it falls outside traditional definitions of work and is not included in national income accounts such as GDP. Valuation of unpaid care work is essential for informing policy decisions, offering valuable insights for policymakers and organizations.

🌟Our upcoming webinar will constitute an informative session on the approach, methodology, and data needs for estimating the total economic value of unpaid care work and will be elaborated by making use of our paper “Women's Invisible Contribution: Quantifying the Economic Value of Women's Unpaid Care Activities in Turkey and Policy Options to Reduce Women's Care Burden.”

We look forward to your participation.

Registration Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MUQfbsBjQFuk8Fuo8U8xyA #/registration

📢 The World Bank Group's 2024-2030 Gender Strategy: Accelerating Gender Equality for Sustainable Development

📈 Gender equality is essential for development. Evidence shows that removing gender barriers boosts productivity, reduces poverty, enhances social cohesion, and fosters well-being. Women's participation and leadership improve natural resource management, resilience, and economic competitiveness. Achieving gender equality requires sustained commitment across legal frameworks, societal norms, public and private sectors, and personal lives.

🌍 The World Bank Group has shared the 2024-2030 Gender Strategy: Accelerate Gender Equality to End Poverty on a Livable Planet. Recognizing that progress on gender equality (SDG 5) is alarmingly off-track, this strategy aims for comprehensive reforms and collective action to create transformative change.

🎯 The strategy prioritizes three objectives: ending gender-based violence and elevating human capital, expanding economic opportunities, and engaging women as leaders. It emphasizes investing in women and girls, addressing men's and boys' disadvantages, and considering gender's intersection with poverty and ethnicity.

💡 To drive change, the strategy focuses on innovation, financing, and collective action. Innovation leverages data, technology, and behavioral insights for effective programs. Financing allocates resources to invest in people, prosperity, and a sustainable planet. Collective action mobilizes stakeholders to advance policies and programs promoting gender equality. The World Bank Group will implement this strategy through a country-led engagement model, integrating gender equality with other development priorities.

🌐 In the past decade, Development Analytics has carried out several studies focusing on gender and childcare policies and programmes for partners including the World Bank, UNICEF, and AFD. We aim to advance women's empowerment and well-being by addressing two key areas: women's economic empowerment and the design of supportive care policies. We assess the costs and effectiveness of different models of affordable and quality childcare and measure the availability, quality, and prices for care to encourage public policies that reduce women’s care burden.

To learn more about the World Bank’s 2024-2030 Gender Strategy, please visit: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/gender/brief/gender-strategy-update-2024-30-accelerating-equality-and-empowerment-for-all

To learn more about Development Analytics’ research on gender and women’s empowerment, please visit: https://www.developmentanalytics.org/gender-and-womens-empowerment

🎉As Development Analytics, we are delighted to share that our associate Dr. Selçuk Bedük, Departmental Lecturer in Comparative Social Policy, at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, is part of an international research team that has been awarded a €1.5 million research grant by the Volkswagen Stiftung Foundation under the “Challenges and Potential for Europe” programme. This significant grant will fund their project, 'Demographic Change and the Intergenerational Persistence in Homeownership in Europe' (DECIPHE).

🌟 The research team includes esteemed scholars: Prof. Philipp Lersch and Prof. Dr. Sabine Zinn from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Humboldt University of Berlin) and DIW Berlin - German Institute for Economic Research, Prof. Sergi Vidal from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and Dr. Márton Medgyesi from TÁRKI Social Research Institute. This team’s study will be the first to examine the impact of Europe's profound demographic shifts—such as changes in partnership, fertility, mortality, and migration—on intergenerational homeownership.

🗒️ Dr. Bedük highlighted the project's importance, noting that housing is the primary source of wealth for most people, yet it is becoming increasingly difficult for younger generations to access. The growing inequality in homeownership favours individuals from wealthier backgrounds, as richer parents can provide various forms of assistance to their children. DECIPHE will investigate these mechanisms across different countries and regions, considering the impact of demographic changes. The study aims to inform policy by analysing the effects of context and institutions and projecting future scenarios based on current demographic trends.

📊 The project employs a comparative research design using long-term quantitative longitudinal data and will develop a micro-simulation model to predict future scenarios. Additionally, it will create an open-access database for contextual factors related to intergenerational homeownership and gather new survey data on homeownership attitudes from four diverse countries: the UK, Germany, Hungary, and Spain. The research will continue until June 2028.

To learn more about the project, please visit: https://www.deciphe.eu/

📖 Today, we would like to highlight UNESCO's recent publication, the 2024 Gender Report: Technology on Her Terms. This report is the gender edition of the 2023 GEM Report and focuses on the interaction between education and technology with a gender lens.

📊 The report reveals that over the past 30 years, significant progress has been made towards gender parity in participation and completion globally. By 2009, gender parity in enrolment was achieved in primary and lower secondary education, and by 2013 in upper secondary education. Tertiary education witnessed a shift, with more women enrolling than men by 2004, a trend that has continued ever since. However, Sub-Saharan Africa remains an exception, with gender disparity persisting across all education levels.

💻 Challenges persist in gender equity in digital skills and access to technology. Social and cultural norms restrict girls' and women's access to technology, limiting their engagement and skill acquisition in the digital realm. The report points out a gender gap in mobile phone ownership (81% men vs. 75% women) and internet use (70% men vs. 65% women), with more pronounced gaps in lower-income and low-income countries. The digital skills gap is large but narrower among youth than adults, indicating a positive trend towards parity.

📚 Girls are far less likely to study STEM subjects despite concerted efforts. In 2018–23, the share of STEM graduates who were female was 35%. Gender biases influence education and career choices, steering women towards people-oriented professions and men towards things-oriented jobs. Addressing these biases and ensuring equitable access to education and technology are critical for advancing gender equality in education and beyond.

📊 “Gender and Women’s Empowerment” is one of the four main areas of expertise for Development Analytics. We have carried out several studies focusing on gender-related research and childcare policies and programmes for partners and clients including The World Bank, UNICEF, and AFD - Agence Française de Développement. Our work tackles the barriers to women's social and economic participation, employing innovative methods to measure women's empowerment, combining detailed data analysis with qualitative insights.

✨ To learn more about our work on Gender and Women's Empowerment, please visit: https://www.developmentanalytics.org/gender-and-womens-empowerment

✨ To read more about UNESCO’s recent report, please visit: https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/en/2024genderreport

🌍 This week, we celebrated the World Environment Day on June 5th. Led by the United Nations Environment Programme, it is the largest global platform for environmental public outreach. This occasion encourages us to reflect on the impact of climate change on poverty.

⚠️ Climate change is evident through rising temperatures, more variable rainfall, droughts, and extreme weather events, all of which threaten ecosystems worldwide. The World Meteorological Organization reports that the past eight years (2015 to 2022) have been the warmest on record.

🌡️ Changes in global surface temperatures intricately interact with social and economic factors, affecting household poverty. Those already facing poverty often bear the brunt of these impacts and have the least capacity to cope. Their daily struggles to earn a living and maintain stable living conditions are intensified by the ongoing climate crisis.

🌪️ The increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events like hurricanes, floods wildfires, and droughts put lives in frontline communities at risk, displacing people from their homes and jeopardizing food sources and livelihoods. These effects amplify the risk of conflict, hunger, and poverty.

📊 Social protection, particularly cash transfers, can help address the urgent needs of the population after a shock. Providing immediate cash assistance can help households in effectively managing sudden income loss, mitigating food insecurity, and decreasing dependence on detrimental coping mechanisms.

📋 Given the increased risks due to climate change, for enhancing disaster readiness and preparedness we are supporting the UNICEF Europe & Central Asia Regional Office with an evidence base on the projected impacts of floods and possible cash transfer approaches for post-disaster recovery. In this respect, to empower policymakers in their emergency response planning, we are currently developing separate Interactive Social Policy Simulator (ISPS) tools for UNICEF country offices in Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Tajikistan; estimating the impact of floods on the level of poverty in each of the countries and the impact of cash transfers on alleviating this poverty impact.

📚 Read more about our recent projects on estimating the impact of shocks and using various cash transfer modalities to alleviate their impact here: https://www.developmentanalytics.org/design-of-shock-responsive-social-protection-programmes

📅 Or if you're interested in learning more about conducting a study in your country, click here to arrange a meeting: https://form.jotform.com/241062147859965

🎉 We are excited to announce that Development Analytics has officially become a member of The Education and Development Forum - UKFIET. UKFIET is a leading organisation dedicated to promoting and strengthening international education and development for all. The commitment of UKFIET to sharing knowledge and expertise and fostering critical dialogue on education issues aligns perfectly with our mission at Development Analytics.

📊 In the scope of our work on investing in education for equitable development, Development Analytics has led a number of mixed-methods analyses examining trends in children's vulnerabilities that impede their access to education. Our analytical approaches aim to identify and provide better opportunities, ultimately fostering increased access to quality education for all. We also focus on using data analysis to help policy makers and governments expand access to high-quality Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs. Within this technical expertise, we also develop interactive models that estimate costs and the potential impact of different expansion scenarios. These models empower policymakers to compare options and make evidence-based decisions for inclusive development.

📚 Aligned with out current expertise, this membership will allow us to share more insights into current knowledge, practices, and global priorities in education and development. We are always eager to engage with policy-makers in multi-lateral, government, and non-government organisations and agencies to maximise our impact.

✨ In this regard, we are keen to actively contribute to the UKFIET network constituting a body of professional expertise for better education outcomes.
Learn more about our work on children’s well-being and development by following this link:
https://www.developmentanalytics.org/childrens-well-being-and-development

At Development Analytics, we are excited to congratulate our team member Hazal Colak Oz as she steps into her new role as Quantitative Research and Strategy Lead!

💼 With a remarkable journey as a social policy researcher, Hazal has demonstrated a wealth of technical knowledge and a proactive approach to adopting new methodologies, developing partnership growth strategies, and designing innovative tools. She has also been a key player in managing the technical workstreams of our projects, contributing to both ex-ante and ex-post evaluations, and providing her quantitative expertise in micro-level and administrative data analysis for social policy research.

🌍 Her work spans numerous countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iraq, Lebanon, Malawi, Nigeria, and Türkiye, collaborating with institutions including UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP, IFRC, and the European Commission. Hazal has played critical roles in projects like revising the targeting approach for multipurpose cash assistance programs and emergency social safety nets (ESSN) in Türkiye, Lebanon, and Iraq, utilizing innovative targeting methodologies and machine learning models.

📊 Hazal’s contributions also include designing and implementing quantitative methods to measure both monetary and multidimensional poverty, and tailoring social assistance programs and shock-responsive policies to meet the needs of the most vulnerable populations. Her ongoing PhD research focuses on analyzing the simulated impact of climate change on poverty in Malawi and Nigeria, further showcasing her commitment to this policy area.

In addition to her project work, Hazal leads the design and continuous enhancement of the Interactive Social Policy Simulator (ISPS) at Development Analytics, creating user-friendly interactive microsimulation tools that empower policymakers with actionable insights.

🎓 Hazal holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Social Policy from the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, a second Master’s in Data Science and Society from Tilburg University, and a BA in Sociology and International relations from Koç Üniversitesi. She is currently pursuing an external PhD in Data Science at Tilburg University.

To learn more about Hazal’s role, please visit: https://www.developmentanalytics.org/team/hazal-%C3%A7olak-%C3%B6z

Please join us in congratulating Hazal on her well-deserved promotion! 🎊

✨ Design of Shock-Responsive Social Protection Programmes

🌐 Disasters due to natural hazards, fueled by climate change, are driving millions into poverty annually, causing billions in economic damage and displacing thousands. Shock-responsive social protection schemes are crucial in mitigating these effects.

📊 We have already partnered with various UNICEF offices to estimate shock impacts and cash transfer effectiveness. For countries including Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tajikistan, Georgia, St Lucia, and Madagascar, our team has led pioneering research providing insights into the benefits of social protection programmes following different types of shocks including earthquakes, floods, and the COVID-19.

📈 Our approach doesn't stop at analysis; we're actively engaged in presenting the research through interactive web applications. Interactive Social Policy Simulator (ISPS) empowers stakeholders to explore the impact of shocks at different severity levels and examine the poverty alleviating impact of cash transfer scenarios that can be implemented after the shocks. The users can change the size of cash transfers and their targeting, compare and contrast the scenarios through examining several indicators, and refine their decisions based on real-time data insights.

📚 Read more about our recent projects on estimating the impact of shocks and using various cash transfer modalities to alleviate their impact here:
https://www.developmentanalytics.org/design-of-shock-responsive-social-protection-programmes

📅 Or if you're interested in learning more about conducting a study in your country, click here to arrange a meeting: https://form.jotform.com/241062147859965



Photo Credit: © UNICEF/UN0835808/Kiliç

📖 We would like to highlight an engaging policy brief by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) titled "Beyond COVID-19: Evaluating Post-Pandemic Education Policies and Combatting Student Absenteeism," released recently. This brief delves into critical dimensions of the global educational landscape in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

📈 The policy brief relies on empirical evidence from the 2023 "Survey on Equity and Inclusion in Education Post COVID-19," led by the Education for Inclusive Societies Project. Focusing on two key inquiries—the policies and practices that have been evaluated and maintained by education systems post-pandemic and the trends in absenteeism and dropouts—this publication aims to offer essential insights for informed decision-making in education policy.

🔍 The Survey found that just over half (12) of education systems indicated a post-pandemic increase in dropouts and truancy in education. While not all systems reported increases in absences and dropouts, most acknowledged the adoption of policies to address these challenges, including the provision of mental health support and well-being initiatives, strengthening data collection and early warning systems, funding for targeted approaches, changing the compulsory school age, and conducting positive messaging campaigns.

📊 Consequently, our report on the Documentation of Education Response in Turkey during the Covid-19 Pandemic and its Effect on Children's Access to and Retention in Education conducted in 2022 for UNICEF Türkiye aimed to understand (i) the policies implemented during extended school closures in Türkiye and assess the challenges faced, alongside (ii) estimating the pandemic's impact on children's learning outcomes and identifying children at risk of dropping out of school and engaging in child labor, using existing data sources (PISA 2018, DHS 2018).

To learn more about our report, please visit: https://www.developmentanalytics.org/policy-reports

To read the OECD’s policy brief, please visit: https://www.oecd.org/publications/evaluating-post-pandemic-education-policies-and-combatting-student-absenteeism-beyond-covid-19-a38f74b2-en.htm

Estimating the economic value of unpaid care work

✨ Let’s highlight the importance of invisible labour of caring for others, that is predominantly undertaken by women, as we celebrate this week. From feeding a baby to cooking or cleaning, the labour of caring for others has long been undervalued for its contribution to the economy, as it falls outside traditional definitions of work and is not included in national income accounts such as GDP. Globally, women contribute to 76% of total unpaid care work, leading to increased time poverty and reduced participation in the labor force.

💡Acknowledging the economic significance of unpaid care work is essential for recognizing its vital contribution. Estimating its value can offer valuable insights into the development of gender-transformative policies related to employment, labor, and leave worldwide.

🌐In the past decade, Development Analytics has carried out several studies focusing on gender and childcare policies and programmes for partners and clients including the World Bank, UNICEF, and AFD - Agence Française de Développement. DA’s extensive work in this area also includes estimating the economic value of unpaid care work in the household.

📈 We estimate the economic value of unpaid care work by leveraging data from nationally representative time-use surveys. By associating the time allocated to these activities with the monetary value of time in the labour market, we quantify the significant economic contribution of unpaid care work to the society as a whole. Our estimations are disaggregated by women and men, emphasizing gender disparities.

📚Read more about our approach on estimating the economic value of unpaid care work and our previous work on gender and social policies here:
https://www.developmentanalytics.org/estimating-the-economic-value-of-unpaid-care-work

📅Or if you're interested in learning more about conducting a similar study in your country , click here to arrange a meeting:
https://form.jotform.com/241143437218956



Image Source: Freepik

🎉 Exciting Announcement! 🎉

🌟 As Development Analytics, we would like to congratulate our team member Nazlı Aktakke for stepping into her new role as Director of Research at Development Analytics!

💼 With a remarkable 12-year journey as a social policy researcher, Nazlı brings an extensive wealth of experience to her new position. Throughout her career, she has been deeply immersed in various policy domains, tackling issues ranging from poverty alleviation to the health and education outcomes of children.

🌍 Nazlı's impact extends far and wide, having worked across diverse country contexts including Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Georgia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Senegal, Madagascar, Mali, Tanzania, and more, in the scope of Development Analytics’ various research projects with esteemed organizations such as UNICEF, WFP, the World Bank, and the European Commission. In her previous roles within Development Analytics in the last 10 years, as Quantitative Researcher and Senior Quantitative Researcher, Nazlı has been instrumental in designing methodologies and instruments for measuring project and policy outcomes, being part of evaluation teams, and providing invaluable trainings in research methods and impact evaluations.

📊 Nazlı has made remarkable contributions to research, particularly in the ex-ante and ex-post evaluations of cash transfer programs. Since 2016, she has been a key figure in various evaluations and research studies related to the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) in Türkiye, initially for WFP and subsequently for IFRC. She has been part of several research projects providing estimations on the poverty-increasing impact of shocks (i.e. COVID-19, earthquakes, and floods) and the benefits of social protection programmes following these shocks.

🎓 Possessing dual master's degrees in Economics from Bogazici University, Türkiye and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain, along with a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from METU of Türkiye, Nazlı's academic achievements perfectly complement her extensive practical experience. This combination of academic excellence and real-world expertise solidifies her standing as a powerhouse in the realm of research.

To learn more about Nazli's work, please visit: https://www.developmentanalytics.org/team/nazl%C4%B1-aktakke

✨ Please join us in congratulating Nazlı on her well-deserved promotion and wishing her continued success in her new role! 🌟